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Messages - SHV

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Saving Our Eugenia
« on: Today at 07:26:51 PM »
Wow, September of ‘93.  I would expect a much larger plant for over 30 years old.  ;)
So the leaves to get significantly bigger huh? Those leaves look more like E. involucrata. My tree has tiny little leaves, but I guess that reflects its age. 

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Saving Our Eugenia
« on: November 13, 2024, 08:25:20 PM »
Anyone have a decent sized E. minutifolia?  I picked up one because it has cool tiny little leaves and thought it would be a nice decorative plant once it got to a decent size.  At its current growth rate, it might get to a decent size when I’m dead. It’s a race for last place between that and E. azeda

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Long term impacts of gopher baskets?
« on: November 12, 2024, 07:09:57 PM »
I previously tried planting mango seedlings without gopher baskets and those little bastards would dig up and eat the whole seedling overnight.  It was too much trouble constantly monitoring all my trees for gopher activity.  And I’ve killed and continue to kill hundreds.  Here is a quick 4 minute video I assembled to show off my homemade gopher baskets and how they have protected the trees over a 5 year period.
https://youtu.be/eCVX01MoS4k?si=TsY7MqHIQgerayyc

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Gophers Aint All Bad!
« on: November 12, 2024, 01:18:04 PM »
They can burrow through the hardest clay, but wouldn't stand a chance up against Florida oolitic limestone.

I will send you some of our SoCA gophers and we can test that theory. 

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 10, 2024, 08:32:04 PM »
Damn Brad, that is one helluva harvest.  I’ve been very pleased with my seedling mango trees. For the most part, the genetics are well preserved in the seedling trees, even in monoembryonic varieties.  I get an oddball from time to time, but most are great eating mangos. I have a bunch of seedling ataulfos that I’m planning to use for rootstock.  Had five of them produce fruit this year that I didn’t see until the fruit had ripened.  Four tasted like store bought Ataulfo, except one tree that produced 2 completely fiber filled fruit, completely unlike Ataulfo. 

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Tree Size in CA
« on: November 06, 2024, 01:28:53 PM »
The largest mango trees I have seen in Southern CA are almost always planted by a wall or next to a house.  The heat that is absorbed then radiated at night must have a significant impact on the health of a mango tree during winter.  I was jogging through a neighborhood adjacent to Balboa park last weekend and saw a house with a 30 foot monster mango tree planted right next to the house.  It’s not just the roots that you need to worry about when they get that large, but the trunk girth is large enough to grow against the wall of the structure.  Of course, that was probably a 30+ year old tree to get that size relatively close to the coast. 

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: November 03, 2024, 11:49:08 PM »
Nice!  I have an M4 seedling that is doing well but probably 3 years from fruiting. You must have grown this from one of the first M4 fruits made public.  How old is your seedling?

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« on: October 26, 2024, 08:19:23 PM »
While walking my farm today, I noticed these dragon fruits that I was hoping someone here could confirm an ID. They were given to me as Jamaican Red, but I can’t find any info online.  Beautiful flowers that made fruit without effort on my part. They are a real bitch to handle due to the short internodes between the numerous thorns. The fruit is also externally darker than others I have growing on the property.









10
Just put my Fern Leaf Guava in the ground today.  It was begging me, so I took an axe the capulin cherry and planted this in its place.  It fills its pot with roots every couple months after uppotting.  Took a short video so you too can appreciate it’s magnificence.
https://youtube.com/shorts/mSlFPiO03vU?si=rmXHmhcSdyBoUxeS

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: should I get a Jamaica cherry?
« on: October 26, 2024, 07:45:03 PM »
Flavor delight Aprium is one of the best in my yard. Best producing, no disease, no spray, just a fantastic temperate fruit tree. 
And yes, get a Jamaican cherry tree as well. 

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: New Guavas
« on: October 25, 2024, 02:32:53 PM »
What's lost on me is why someone cares what appeals to others and makes a stink about it in a public forum.

Are you referring to Coco Cream’s comment?  It was one sentence and certainly not overly critical.  I think this forum is a safe place to share opinions about tropical plants and fruit. On another thread, some have stated that they find Jamaican cherry trees and fruit unappealing.  I don’t take offense about it, even though I think they are absolutely wrong and perhaps a little uncultured  ;)

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2 avacado trees in 1 hole?
« on: October 21, 2024, 12:46:04 PM »
What would you do if you had a hundred dollars?  I tell you what I’d do. Two avocado trees in the same hole, man.
Why not just graft two varieties on one tree?

14
I used Dominion (Imidacloprid) to eliminate scale, mealy bug, and aphids from my greenhouse at the recommendation from another forum member.  It wiped them all out in a couple weeks as a systemic, watered into the pots.  It’s recommended for termites, but seems to kill indiscriminately and did not affect my plants.

15
Tasted my first Brazilian milk fruit. It was sweet and creamy as advertised.  One dimensional flavor.  It does leave a latex like film in your tongue that disappears quickly after eating.  Not a bad fruit, not a great fruit, but a beautiful plant that flowers a lot and hardy in a SoCA climate.  Video below for visual people. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/tGl3PSkWC68?si=85uHNTDw-NHOS7Wd

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: My Yard 2022
« on: October 15, 2024, 10:07:08 PM »
Oh dude, that’s a damn shame.  Such a unique, beautiful property.  Hopefully you find your own land to really spread your wings. Would love to pop by there one more time, say hello, and see if I can give a few plants a good home.  How much longer do you have exactly?

17
I did not hand pollinate. It appears to be pollinated by the local fauna.  Speaking of which, saw this NYT article with frogs getting gluttonous with Cordia taguahyensis flowers and functioning as potential pollinators:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/science/frogs-pollination-fruits.html

18
First fruit. I will let it sit on the tree a day or two longer then try it out. From flower to fruit, 1 month. 



19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Myrciaria pilosa
« on: October 11, 2024, 10:03:35 PM »
A 3 year old plant in a tiny pot will be stunted. Make sure you up pot the the little tree so it can spread its roots. It should take off with some room to grow. Mine gets a larger pot every 6 months.
My M. pilosa did not set any fruit from its 3 flowers.  Next time.

20
Yeah, hopefully it improves with maturity.  I got my first grumichamas this year and I was very disappointed with the fruit quality.  Several levels below a good CORG.  I’m attributing it to being first time fruiting. 
That said, the aff Arvensis better step up its game big time if it’s reported to taste “Amazing!”  ::)

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Going to rip out my Lulo (sniff sniff)
« on: October 04, 2024, 09:59:55 PM »
Apologies for derailing this thread to Muntingia, but these are awesome fruit trees that are definitely not invasive in SoCA. I can’t imagine this throwing suckers or volunteers. I have a yellow and red fruit selection and both are super sweet.  Probably the climate and not the selection.  Of course, I’m the guy that enjoys bubblegum or cotton candy ice cream, so this fruit is right up my alley.  Shared the berries with a number of people at a recent house party and they stripped the tree clean. It produces hundreds that fall to the ground for easy harvest. 
Only problem with pot growing is they fill up the pots with roots in a couple months after repotting.  They want to go in the ground.

22
Wow, nicely done.  This is the first I've heard of this plant.  The fruit look just like Acerola, but the tree looks nothing like it.  Very cool if you can get it to fruit.

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Overloaded White Sapote tree
« on: September 25, 2024, 06:37:24 AM »
My neighbor’s white sapote is absolutely loaded with fruit. It’s a located on an empty lot and receives no irritation and no attention whatsoever.  This is truly a tree that survives on neglect.  He has given me permission to pick the fruit as they are “too sweet” for his taste. No idea what selection of white sapote.



24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: White Sapote Fruit Shapes
« on: September 18, 2024, 09:12:43 PM »
I picked many more fruits to show the different shapes of the varieties I'm growing.

I think I found the world's smallest ripe white sapote fruit. I will post a photo of it later tonight, it is called Michele, from Pasedena CA.

I didn't know white sapote would ripen at this small size, but did see that many of my grafts of this variety had small fruits that I just removed thinking it was too soon to let it ripen.

Smaller than this?



25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mountain Lion encounters
« on: September 16, 2024, 12:32:29 PM »
Oh, they are around. Good chance they have seen you many more times than you have seen them. 
I spotted a mountain twice in 8 years living on my property. If I include my neighbor’s sightings, it would total a couple times a year. Keep your head on a swivel when you are working alone on large property in east county.  My neighbor snagged a photo of a puma and cub walking up my backhill in the middle of the day.

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